Thread by @ElaiRettig

Following #Israel's decision to cut the #electricity supply to #Gaza, I'm sharing a short informational thread with background on Gaza's electricity sector and the consequences of the supply cut: In times of peace, 50% of the electricity in Gaza is provided by Israel for free ->

-> Gaza also has an independent diesel-fueled power plant that generates 25% of its needs, and the rest is generated through a vast deployment of private diesel generators, and one of the largest share of rooftop solar PV panels in the world. ->

Gaza residents are used to outages and have an average of 4 hours of electricity per day. Hamas has not bothered to restore the electrical infrastructure in Gaza since it was damaged in Operation Protective Edge in 2014, despite the many foreign aid funds that were provided ->

-> Residents of Gaza who can afford it have already found independent solutions (diesel generators and solar panels). In a tactical sense, the underground Hamas bunkers and HQ will likely still have electricity because they would have stockpiled diesel fuel for months ahead ->

-> The broader impact of the power outage will be mainly on the water supply, water desalination, and sewage treatment in Gaza, which needs an electricity supply to operate and can create a crisis if not eventually addressed. /end

Since I can’t share long videos on this platform, for a more detailed 3-minute video I made on the issue, you can visit my LinkedIn page:

Or Facebook page: linkedin.com/posts/elai-ret…
m.facebook.com/story.php?stor…

Regarding free Israeli electricity to Gaza. Technically the Palestinian Authority is billed for it, but that’s just a workaround to satisfy domestic Israeli politics. The PA doesn’t pay the bill, it accumulates the debt for Gaza and every few years the debt is forgiven/erased.

For those interested in more data on solar panels in Gaza, I recommend the attached paper by Fischhendler, Herman, and David (2022). They used satellite imagery to asses the number of solar energy sites in Gaza. In 2012 they located 12 sites. In 2019 there were 8760 sites.

https://twitter.com/liorherman/status/1389225380863676421

If you're interested in citing the information in this thread, I wrote a more detailed policy brief on Gaza's electricity supply for @BESA_Center. In it, I also discuss the legality of the supply cut in international law. BESA Perspectives Paper No. 2219: besacenter.org/cutting-the-el…

@BESA_Center Many reports are coming in that Hamas is stealing diesel from Gaza’s power plant and even from UNRWA facilities and hospitals. This ensures Hamas underground bases can power their diesel generators for months ahead. It’s a common wartime measure, but devastating to population.

https://twitter.com/unrwa/status/1713887016134295977